Again on the ghost theme in Child #77 and/or in Child #248. Hoping that Malcolm Douglas sees this reply and says something more. It seems to me that if the ghost theme was added to The Grey Cock (Child # 248), it happened long before Cecilia Costello's recording. She is not the only one to do that among "source" singers. Two more examples come from the following versions, one by John Reilly, and the other sung by Alison McMorland, from the singing of Bob Butler of Sheffield. They didn't learn the song from recordings, I think.


Adieu Unto All True Lovers
John Reilly, on Who's that at my bed window? Songs of love & amorous encounters, The Voice of the People Vol. 10, Topic TSCD 660, ballad recorded 1967, previously released on Topic 12T359

For here's adieu unto all true lovers
And to my true lover where'er she'll be
This very night I mean to be with her
Though she is a many a long mile away

If the night was dark and as dark as a dunghill
And no daylight, love, for to appear
Saying - I'll be guided without a stumble
Into the arms of you, my dear

Oh, when he came to his own love's cottage
He'd kneel down gently all on a stone
Through a pane of glass he had whispered slowly -
I say, true love, are you all alone?

Who's that? Who's that at my bed window
Disturbing me from my long night's rest? -
Oh, I say, lover, do not discover
Open the door, love, and let me in
I say, true lover, do not discover
Besides I'm wet, love, unto the skin

Ah, she rose up off her soft down pillow
Opened the door and let her love in
Where they both caught hands and they kissed each other
A welcome night it did soon begin

They still kept hands and they embraced each other
Until the long night was at an end
Saying - Willie, Willie, where is your flushes?
Where is your flushes you had years ago?
Saying - Molly Ban, sure, cold clay has changed 'em
The raging seas between me and you

They still kept hands and they 'braced each other
Until the cocks they begin to crow
And then shook hands and he cried and parted:
To the burning temples, love, I have to go


Lover's Ghost
Alison McMorland, on Alison McMorland and Geordie McIntyre, Ballad Tree, Tradition Beares LTCD1051, 2003 (from the singing of Bob Butler of Sheffield)

Johnny he promised to marry me
But I fear he's with some fair one gone
There's something bewails him and I don't know what it is
And I am weary from lying alone

Johnny came here at the appointed hour
And he chapped at the window so low
This fair maid arose and she's hurried on her clothes
And she's welcomed her true lover in

She took him by the hand and she's laid him down
She felt he was colder than the clay
Oh my dearest dear if I only had one wish
This long night would ne'er turn to day

Crow up crow up my little bird
And don't you crow before the break o' day
Your cage shall be made of the glittering gold
And its doors of the silvery grey

Where is your soft bed of down my love
And where is your white Holland sheet
And where is the fair maid who watches over you
While you're taking your long silent sleep

The sand is my soft bed of down my love
The sea is my white Holland sheet
And the long hungry worms will feed off of me
While I sleep every night in the deep

When will I see you again my love
When will I see you again
When the little fishes fly and the seas they do run dry
And the hard rocks they melt in the sun